Past, Present, Future
by Captain-Confusion
Summary: It had all started with a calm drive through the foggy mountains. It ended with the car rolling down the mountainside and into the lake. It began again when Lacey opened her eyes and woke up in  strange lighthouse, surrounded by pirates.
1. Chapter 1

Past, Present, Future

Hey, this is a new fic I REALLY wanted to get started on. I promise I'll keep working on "Through Your Eyes" for those of you who've read it and like it. Uh, well, this one's a little different. I've noticed that this plot has been used before (not in a Skyland fic), so just to let you know, I'm not stealing. Oh, I'm not sure, but in the episode _Blood Ties _I think it said something about one of the characters being alive around the time the earth shattered. Just ignore that, if it did, and pretend that it happened long, long ago, around d the year 2120. Well, anyway, I hope you like it. Bye!

Chapter One

Lacey opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times. She observed her surroundings. She was in a car—her car. She could see trees flashing by through the window.

"Morning," Jeff said brightly. Lacey shook her head and sat up. "Morning, Dad," she replied, rubbing her eyes. The seatbelt cut into her sides painfully, but she knew she couldn't just take it off.

Jeff reached over to the seat next to him and grabbed for something. Then, he handed a bag of bright green grapes back to Lacey. "Thanks," she said to him. She reached in the bag, plucked a few from the stem, and stuffed them into her mouth, crushing them with her teeth and savoring the sweet juice.

After she had her fill of grapes, she set the bag down next to her, took a quick sip from her water bottle, and stared out the window.

She wished she could see the cliffs and mountains, but a dense layer of fog hung over them, concealing them completely. Then again, she had never really seen fog like this. It rolled and flowed through the trees like a river, a cold gray river. The sight was rather depressing to her. The police had come for her mother on a foggy day. She remembered it clearly, as if it had only happened just a few days ago.

They had come bursting into the house, yelling and screaming. Lacey, who was only a child at the time, was terrified. Pressing her ear on her bedroom door, she managed to catch a few words: Jail, custody, and drugs.

Lacey reached down and tenderly rubbed the scar on her left wrist.

_Naomi slammed the front door behind her, holding a cigarette in one hand. It was her first day out of prison and she was already smoking and drinking again. "I'm home!" she called to Lacey. Her words were muffled through the bathroom door. Lacey quickly wiped up the few drops of blood in the sink and stashed the knife away in one of the drawers…_

Lacey gulped down a sob. It was such a painful memory. Therapy, divorce, jail. The words made her sick to her stomach. Seeing the fog brought back so many painful memories. And yet at the same time, it calmed her, eased her pain. She was glad that the fog was there. It hid her from whatever lay ahead in her future, hid her from reality.

Unfortunately, the fog had reached ground level, making it hard for Jeff to see the road ahead of him. He suddenly noticed the dark silhouette of an animal, and swerved out of the way shouting, "Deer!" The car jerked to the side and began to tilt.

"Dad, Dad!" Lacey screamed, gripping the door handle tightly. It happened so suddenly, so quickly, that she didn't have time to comprehend…

It started with the world turning sideways, and a falling sensation. Screams, tearing sounds, and loud bangs and crashes filled her ears. The sides of the car battered her mercilessly as the car came crashing down the mountainside. "Dad!" Lacey screamed, seeing that his face was covered in blood. His eyes were closed, his head hanging loosely on his shoulders.

"Dad!" She tried to call his name again, but her cry was overpowered by the sound of screeching metal. Without warning, the door tore off. She suddenly saw the seatbelt not as something meant to protect her, but as something meant to hold her in place and trap her.

She unbuckled herself, jumped forward, and grabbed onto the steering wheel, whimpering and sobbing hysterically with fear. Her stomach twisted when she looked out the window and saw blue rushing up. "Damn it," she hissed to no one. The car continued to plummet down and down until it hit the surface of the water with a deafening crash.

Freezing water instantly filled the car. She could feel it swiftly sinking down, down to the bottom of the lake. The thought of being pulled down and drowning made her feel sick inside. Without thinking, Lacey clawed her way out of the beaten car and made it out.

She suddenly felt very light and small just floating there in the water. Very alone. Lacey felt so lost and angry. All she had wanted was a nice camping trip with her father, away from home, away from her troubles. But instead, she had been thrown over the edge of a cliff and into a lake. Her vision began to blur. Her lungs burned and ached. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of not being able to breathe. Then, darkness closed in on her, and she felt everything slowly begin to fade away.

* * *

244 years later…

* * *

"Mahad, quit fooling around," Cortes barked. Mahad rolled his eyes and skidded to a halt. The earth suddenly slipped out from underneath him as he fell and hit the ice with a hard smack. Lena and Dahlia couldn't help but laugh. Cortes rolled his eyes.

"Come on, I don't have time for this. You and Lena can explore a little, if you stay away from the lake," he said. Lena shrugged and followed as Mahad began to run down the hill. "Wait up!" she called, slipping and sliding on the snow. He continued to run ahead.

"Cortes said we can't go to the lake!" she protested when she realized where he was going. "Yeah, Cortes says a lot of things," Mahad said back, pushing his way through a cluster of trees.

He stopped in front of the lake and just stared ahead. Lena came up behind him and stared too. As far as she could tell, there was no lake. It had been covered by heavy sheets of snow, just as the rest of the ground had. It was still beautiful, of course.

"I'm going to go look around. Stay here, Lena," Mahad ordered. Lena sighed and sat down on a soft patch of soft snow and stared down at the ice. She reached a glove hand down and wiped some of the snow off the surface. She could just barely see into the icy depths.

A few hundred years ago, the lake had been liquid. People drove around in cars and traveled the world, seeing oceans and rivers. They had entire pools of water made just for swimming in. And then the earth had split apart, for whatever reason.

The pirates were still unsure of what exactly had happened, how the earth had shattered. Very few people in the world knew…

Lena's eyes wandered over to a dark spot under the ice. She assumed at first that it was just a rock, until she noticed the shape. She squinted, straining to see. "Mahad!" she called loudly.

He came rushing up behind her moments later. "What's wrong Lena?" he asked. "Look," she said, pointing. At first Mahad didn't see what she was pointing to. "Oh," he whispered, surprised. "It's a body."

* * *

"Keep drilling, Wayan," Cortes said. They had been cutting into the ice and trying to get the body for at least an hour now, and Wayan was getting tired. Finally, finally, after working for so long, they managed to pull the body out of the ice.

Mahad jerked back, a little more than disturbed at the sight of this half-frozen girl. Her hair was dark and curly, matted down. Her skin was a sickeningly pale color. She wore a plain white shirt and a pair of blue denim pants that Mahad remembered were called, "Jeans." He reached out and touched her skin. It was cold and hard, like the ice. The Vector had said that he knew a way to revive her, but Mahad found that hard to believe now as he stared at her cold unmoving body.

Lena was disappointed. She had tried to convince them that reviving the girl was wrong. She had been dead for at least one hundred years. She would be devastated to find that all she had once loved and cherished had been destroyed. Although Cortes agreed, he knew that he needed whatever information this girl could provide.

So, here they were, carrying the body into the Saint Nazaire. They layed her gently on a bed in the back room so The Vector could examine her. Mahad, Dahlia, and Lena spoke very little on the way home.

"I wonder what she's going to say when we tell her that she's been dead for so long," Mahad said finally as they exited the Saint Nazaire. Dahlia frowned. "What if she was alive when the earth split apart? What if she already knows about the Sphere," she said. Mahad considered this for a second. "No. Wouldn't the lake already be frozen by the time the Earth shattered?" "No," Lena contradicted. "If she drowned just after it shattered, the lake wouldn't have frozen over yet." Mahad finally gave up, throwing his hands in the air. "Whatever," he said. "We'll find out when she wakes up."

* * *

Everyone gathered around the bed anxiously. "I'm almost finished," The Vector said, typing something into the computer. He had gathered up some old machinery—really old machinery, and managed to put it back together. Lena thought the large contraption was ridiculous. The Vector said that a similar machine was used to revive dead people. He had tried to explain how the machine worked, but no one understood. After he typed several codes into his computer, the machine started.

Lena stared at the girl. Her skin seemed to fill with color as the blood began to flow through her veins. Her skin that was once hard, cold, and pale, was now soft to the touch, and a pinkish color. Finally, the machine stopped. The girl's eyes fluttered open. Lena's heart leaped with excitement. She reached over and ripped the tubes out of her arms, screaming.

Finally, the machine stopped. The girl's eyes fluttered open. Lena's heart leaped with excitement. She reached over and ripped the tubes out of her arms, screaming.

"Where am I?" she asked awkwardly, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. Cortes sighed and approached her. "Who are you people?" the girl asked worriedly.

"I'm sorry. We know you'll find this hard to believe this, right now, but we have no choice but to tell you anyway," he began. The girl narrowed her eyes. "Tell me what?" she asked. Cortes rubbed the skin on his forehead, not sure how to explain.

"We found you at the bottom of the lake." The girl sighed with relief. "So you're rangers," she said. Cortes shook his head, and her fear and worry returned. "The year is 2251." The girl laughed. "What is this, an episode of _Star Trek_?" she joked. No one laughed. Seeing their solemn expressions, she realized that they weren't lying.

"Look out the window," Mahad said slowly. She nervously turned and looked at the window, seeing only sky and clouds. "Oh my god," she whispered.

"The earth has shattered into millions of pieces. They orbit around the core now," Lena explained. The girl shook her head, refusing to believe. "Where's my family?" she asked. Cortes sighed again. "I'm sorry but he's dead, along with everyone else from your time." The girl glanced back and forth frantically, feeling the world closing in on her, ready to collapse any second.

"Why did you bring me here and thaw me out and stuff?" she asked. "We think that you might be able to help us and answer some very important questions. She clenched her fists and stood up. "Well, I don't _have _to tell you anything. I'd rather you just threw me back in the lake and let me freeze all over again."

Okay, so that's the end of chapter one. I know it was kind of cheesy and stupid, but I hope you liked it anyway. Well, seeya.


	2. Chapter Two

Okay, so here's chapter two. What to write, what to write… I don't really have this one planned out, so I'm just going to improvise and pay very close attention when I edit it.

Please, please forgive me. But I won't be home again. Maybe someday you'll look up. And barely conscious, you'll say to no one, "Isn't something missing?" Evanescence-Missing 

Chapter Two

"_Now _that_ is funny," Lacey said, laughing. Janet covered her mouth and giggled. "I can't believe he actually said that!" Carry snorted. Lacey stared at the pavement. _

_ "Wanna race?" she said. Janet and Carry shrugged, and lined up next to her. "One, two, three. Go!" Lacey shouted, leaping into the air from the starting point. _

_ She sprinted off for the fence, pushing her legs to go harder and faster with every second. Janet was ahead of her, and Carry was behind by only a foot. She forced her legs to move a little faster, and Carry fell behind. Janet was so close now… Unexpectedly, Janet slowed and fell behind Lacey as well. She jumped forward and grabbed onto the fence, holding her arms in the air triumphantly. _

_ Janet and Carry walked over moments later. "I can't believe you beat me, Lace," Janet gasped, sucking in as much air as her lungs could hold. "Wanna rematch?" Lacey asked. Janet bit her lip and smiled. "Okay," she replied. _

_ Lacey was about to start running when she heard someone calling her name. She stood up straight and looked around. Mr. Myers was calling loudly. "Just a sec," she said, heading for him. He stopped calling when he saw her approaching. _

_ "Yeah? What's up?" she asked. Mr. Myers had a very solemn expression on his face. "Lacey, I need to speak to you in my office," he said, adjusting his square glasses. Lacey worriedly followed him inside the school building and into the principal's office, where Mrs. Manson, the school counselor, and Ms. Woods, her teacher, awaited. _

_ "Have a seat," Mr. Myers said, gesturing to a small wooden chair. She sat down cross-legged and waited for one of them to say something. "_

_ Lacey, your dad is going to be here to pick you up in a couple of minutes," Mr. Myers began. She looked at the floor and tried to calm her nerves. "What, do I have a doctor appointment or something?" she asked. Ms. Woods sighed heavily. _

_ "Lacey, your mother just called us and told us some very bad news." Lacey gulped nervously. "Your brother is dead." _

_ Her blood instantly froze in her veins, her heart stopping, her stomach clenching. "What?" she said, hardly believing what she had been told. "I don't understand… How?" she asked. "We're going to leave that to your parents," Mrs. Myers said, folding her hands in her lap. Lacey stood up and backed away. _

_ "No," she muttered, shaking her head. "Lacey, we understand that—" "No!" _

_ Lacey bolted out of the office and into the hallway, feeling the tears welling in her eyes. "Come back!" Mr. Myers called. She didn't listen. She ran into the girl's bathroom, opened a stall, slammed it shut and locked it, and squeezed down into the space between the toilet and the wall, burying her hands in her face. He wasn't dead. He couldn't be dead. How could he have died? Lacey wanted to pretend she hadn't heard Mr. Myers, but no matter how she tried to avoid the truth, she knew that Michael was gone and never coming back. _

* * *

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have overreacted like that. I—I'll answer any questions you have for me," Lacey said, ashamed of her childish behavior. Cortes nodded his head. "But only if you answer a few questions of mine first," she added.

Mahad sighed and left the room, and Lacey took a seat, seeing that this was going to be a _very _long and confusing conversation. There was a moment of awkward silence. Everyone had left the room but Cortes.

"So. Ask me a question," Lacey said. "Do you remember what year you crashed?" he asked. Lacey pondered his question, searching her memories for the year.

When she thought about numbers, everything became confusing. She tried to imagine it. _1010… No, it must have been much later. 657? No, no, that's earlier, not later. 3000? _She thought. A sickening feeling settled in her stomach as she realized what was happening. Quickly, she mentally tested herself. _8 plus 7 is…4? No, no, no. 8 plus 7 is 9. _She looked at the floor worriedly. Nothing made sense. Algebra, multiplication, division. She couldn't even get the simplest addition or subtraction problem. Numbers didn't make sense. She couldn't even remember how old she was.

Lacey decided not to tell Cortes about her problem with numbers. "No. I don't remember," she said finally. He sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. "Can you tell me what it was like back then?" he asked. "Drugs and alcohol were popular, kids went to public school, the earth was still intact, people were violent and aggressive, and my country was at war. Oh, and scientists were working on a nuclear weapon of some sort," she explained. Cortes sat up straight.

"Based on the information you have given me, I'd say you fell in the lake somewhere around the year 2010." Lacey tried to act like she understood exactly what he was saying, but it was hard.

"Now you have to answer a few questions of mine. First off, what's going on in the world right now? I mean, are there countries that are starving, how are kids getting education, who's in charge of this place, stuff like that." Cortes sighed again and began to explain.

* * *

By the time he finished, Lacey's head was swimming with questions. She'd asked him several, but there were some he couldn't answer. Hearing that the world was under control of the Sphere shocked her, but what shocked her even more was seeing Lena use her powers.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god! How do you _do _that?" she exclaimed. Lena shrugged. "I don't even know," she joked. Lacey rolled her eyes. "Okay, this future is getting just a little too weird. I mean, come on, first you tell me that the world exploded or whatever and we're on a floating chunk of land. Then you tell me that people use ships for transportation instead of cars. Then you tell me that you're a bunch of pirate rebels hiding from an evil dictatorship that wants to take over the world or whatever. Then you tell me there's a severe water shortage. Now you're telling me that some people have powers?"

"We'll try to help you adjust as much as we can," Dahlia said. Lacey rolled her eyes. "No thank you. As far as I can tell, there's no one in the world who can help me right now," she said, storming out of the lighthouse. She hadn't meant to be so dramatic, but right then the last thing she needed was some random stranger babbling on and on about the future.

Dahlia found Lacey sitting in the grass a few hours later. She sat with her arms wrapped around her legs, her chin resting on her knees.

"Lacey," Dahlia said, coming down the stone steps. She looked up at Dahlia and waited for her to speak. "My old roommate just moved out, and I know you need a place to stay, so—" "You were wondering if I wanted to stay at your house?" Lacey finished. "Yeah. We don't really have anywhere else for you to stay right now."

"Okay. I'm getting a little tired anyway," Lacey said, standing up and following behind Dahlia. She led her through a maze of streets, alleyways, and shortcuts until she reached her house at the bottom of the block.

Lacey expected Dahlia's house to be clean and well organized, but instead it was a complete mess. Clothes were strewn about the floor, along with dirty plates and silverware. The wooden floor was unpolished, and it creaked with every step she took. "Sorry, I haven't cleaned in a while," Dahlia said, closing the door quietly behind her. "You'll be sleeping upstairs in my room tonight."

Lacey sighed and headed up the creaky old stairs, half wondering if they would break if she didn't walk lightly enough. She went inside of Dahlia's bedroom, which was a lot cleaner than the rest of the house. Two beds stood at opposite ends of the room, both covered in plain white sheets. Dahlia entered the room moments later and took off her boots.

"Do you have some pajamas I can borrow?" Lacey asked. Dahlia opened her bottom drawer and began to tear through it until she found a nightgown. She tossed it over to Lacey, expecting her to catch it when it was more than ten feet away. She went over and picked it up off the floor.

It was bright robin's egg blue and made of a strange material Lacey wasn't familiar with. The sleeves were ruffled, and little pink hearts dotted the collar.

"Sorry. That's one of the last ones I have," Dahlia apologized. Lacey shrugged and slipped her T-shirt off. It didn't seem awkward, undressing in front of her. But as she pulled off her pants, she noticed that Dahlia was eyeing her closely. Lacey stopped and made eye contact with her.

"What?" she asked. "Those cuts and scars. They look painful," she said, slipping into a pair of red silky pants. Lacey looked down at her left arm and cringed. "I—I probably got them during the crash," she lied.

Dahlia couldn't help but notice how fine and precise the cuts were. Twigs, tree branches, and even broken glass couldn't have made such fine cuts. Only a very thin sharp razor could have. And then she noticed how skinny Lacey was. Her ribs poked out of her chest, as if she were starving.

Now Lacey felt uncomfortable. She pulled the nightgown on quickly and crawled under the warm blankets of her new bed. "G'night," she said. Dahlia flicked the light switch, and in an instant, everything went dark. Lacey forced her eyes shut. She fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

_ Lacey lifted the cardboard box off the floor, but it slipped and fell out of her hands, its contents spilling out all over the floor. Michael's old toys. She reached over and grabbed one of his old plastic Batman action figures. It had been one of his favorite toys. He would run around the house holding it high over his head, screaming and singing loudly. And then Lacey would come over and take the toy away, and he would start to cry… "You're so stupid Michael!" she would scream. Now, looking down at the toy, she felt nothing but anger and disgust. _

_ "Stupid," she growled, hurling the toy at the back wall. It hit with a satisfying _snap _and fell to the floor in pieces. _

_ Then, she noticed the picture on the floor next to her. It showed two stick figures scribbled over in crayon. One of them was tall, and had long blue hair, and the other was short, reaching up to hold the tall one's hand. Underneath it read, "My big sistrr anud mee ," in sloppy handwriting. "Michael," Lacey whispered, as if he were in the room with her at that very moment. "I love you. I'll never forget you. I promise." She set the piece of paper down on the floor next to her and let the tears fall, let all of her suppressed sadness and anger go…_

So that's pretty much it for chapter two. Hope you liked it. Please review, tell me what you think. Well, seeya.


End file.
